§ 31. Mr. Haleasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies the total cost to Government funds in this country and in Kenya, respectively, of payments in money and grants of educational benefit, travelling and other allowances made to Rawson Mbogwa Macharia since July, 1952; when were these applications for benefit first made; and what were the dates of payment.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydThe Kenya Government paid to Macharia and his dependants a total sum of £426 in Kenya and £1,644 in the United Kingdom. Macharia first asked whether the Government would give him protection on 6th November, 1952.
As regards the third part of the Question, in view of the length of the information requested, I will, with permission, write to the hon. Member.
§ Mr. HaleIn view of the fact that it is extremely important that we should know whether these payments were promised before or after the trial at which Macharia gave evidence, could not the Colonial Secretary at least give us that information? If it was before the trial, were the facts communicated to the solicitors who were advising the defence?
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydI think that the hon. Gentleman has read the case very carefully himself, and I think he knows that in fact the statement was made by Macharia unaided, as the judge noted in his findings at the end of the trial. In an interview on that day—6th November—with the then public prosecutor, Mr. Somerhough, after going over the statement of 6th October, Macharia asked whether the Kenya Government could 231 give him protection should he give evidence against Kenyatta, and the deputy prosecutor said he would raise the question with the authorities concerned.
§ 33. Mr. Haleasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies on what date the evidence given by Rawson Mbogwa Macharia at the trial of Jomo Kenyatta was first supplied to the prosecution.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydA statement written and signed by Macharia, and dated 6th October, 1952, which was substantially the same as the evidence which he gave at the trial of Jomo Kenyatta, was first seen by the then deputy public prosecutor on 5th November, 1952.
§ Mr. HaleIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that so long as he goes on using the word "protected" and talks about the promise of protection given on 6th November, before the trial, without saying what arrangements were made for the payment of something like £2,000 of benefit to this witness who testified at the trial, the whole question of the trial comes under acute suspicion, because this man was the one really important witness.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydAs the hon. Gentleman knows, this is a very complicated matter. I am very ready to discuss it at length, and if he cares to raise it on the Motion for the Adjournment, I will deal with it in the full detail which it deserves.